DC COMICS FIRST LOOKS

SMALLVILLE UPDATE

The WB has released five more images from "Commencement," the fourth-season finale of Smallville scheduled to air on Wednesday, May 18.

Here's how the network describes the episode:

"Clark (Tom Welling) begins to piece together the reason he was sent to Earth after he has a nightmare that something horrible is going to happen to Smallville and heads to the cave to seek answers from Jor-El. His biological father tells him he must reunite the three crystals immediately or a disaster of epic proportions will befall the planet and even Clark won't be able to stop it. Meanwhile, Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) helps Lana (Kristin Kreuk) escape Smallville after the death of Genevieve Teague the takes shocking action to get one of the crystals away from Lionel (John Glover). Realizing they are connected to Clark, Chloe (Allison Mack) tries to stop Lex from discovering the truth about the crystals. Jason (Jensen Ackles) takes Jonathan (John Schneider) and Martha (Annette O'Toole) hostage and threatens to kill Martha unless Jonathan tells him where Clark hid the crystals."

Greg Beeman directed the episode, which was written by Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer

The finale will be 90 minutes and will include an eight-minute Batman Begins presentation.

Click on the thumbnails for larger and fuller images.

ANGEL PREVIEW

IDW Publishing has provided The Continuum with a preview of the first five pages of unlettered art from Angel: The Curse #1, due in stores in June.

The artwork is by David Messina; the story is written by Jeff Mariotte.

Here's how IDW describes the issue:

"Joss Whedon's classic vampire character returns to comics and IDW's got him! In this first issue of a new Angel tale, Angel has survived the conclusion of his TV show and finds himself in a mysterious Romanian forest. There, his search for the Gypsy tribe that cursed him years ago takes a turn for the worse."

Click on the thumbnails above for larger images.

THE BATMAN UPDATE

Kids' WB! has announced a network premiere date for the 14th episode of The Batman animated series.

"The Cat, The Bat and The Ugly" will air on Saturday, May 14 at 10:30 a.m.

* Actor Seth Green, who is a co-creator in the upcoming Top Cow Productions title Freshmen, will be appearing on Last Call with Carson Daly on NBC on Thursday. According to Top Cow, Green will promote the book, showing artwork.

* Spider-Man 2 was nominated for four MTV Movie Awards, including Best Movie, Best Villain (Alfred Molina), Best Action Sequence and Best video Game Based on a Movie. Elektra was nominated for Best Kiss with Jennifer Garner and Natassia Malthe.

* Coming Thursday: Marvel news and much more!!!

COMICS CONTINUUM BACK ISSUES

In case you missed The Continuum's recent coverage, here are some links: